How to Save a Life Inspired by the movie: The Box
by Lina Destin
Summary: Will the decision of taking home one million dollars be the worst choice Lina Destin has ever made? More summary in the first chapter
1. The all powerful button

How to Save a Life

Inspired by: The Box

Note: I did write this story myself. But the idea came about after I saw the trailer for the movie The Box. You know on deal or no deal when Howie flips up the lid to this little clear box and it's got a button that the person can push if they want to keep the money? Well, the movie, and this story start out just like that except the person can either automatically get a million dollars or choose not to press it. But of course, there has to be a catch. If the person chooses a million dollars they also choose to end someone's life. They don't know who the person is, or where in the world they live, but sometimes temptation can be so great that the consequences don't seem to matter. I hope this keeps everyone thinking.

The alarm rings, waking up Lina Destin from her lazy slumber. She yawns and stretches her arms as she removes the covers, revealing her skimpy lingerie. Her black fingernails swipe the

messy brunette bangs from her deep blue eyes and she delicately moves her foot to step out of bed when suddenly she falls through the floor. After screaming in terror, she finally lands

safely in a leather office chair which was situated in a somewhat blank room. Looking around, she only finds a wooden desk in front of her, with a small box on top. Behind the desk was

a man wearing a business suit. He had hands, but it seemed like he didn't have a head. His face was glowing so brightly that it blinded Lina to look into it. "Where the hell am I?!!!!" she

impatiently demands. "You are about to make the most important decision of your entire life" a deep voice states in the utmost seriousness from behind all that bright shining light above

his neck. "I'm in my underwear, pervert!" Lina seethes back and lucky for her, the mysterious man ignores it. "I understand you are not the whole person I am speaking with?" he

questions in the same deadly serious voice and Lina folds her arms over her shivering half-naked body and nods. "Yeah. I was separated from myself when I was thirteen. I'm the bad

half. My other self- Lisa Destin- is the good half. She's also the one who's better at making 'smart' decisions. I live to make the wrong choices. Why didn't you just call _her_ over here to

make this so-called _most important decision of my life_?!!!!" Lina retorts, exercising her fingers up and down to emphasize how ridiculous she thinks all of this sounds. "A person is as weak

as their strongest temptation" the man explains while his bored companion ignores him and picks at her manicured nails. Lina's eyes slightly start to glance toward the lid of the little box

on the desk which the man was slowly opening for dramatic effect. "If you press this button right now, you will be awarded one million dollars, but… someone on this earth- who I remind

you is just as deserving of their life as you are of yours- will have until sundown to enjoy the last few moments of their precious life" The dark-spirited woman stares at the intelligent,

glowing man for a few moments in disbelief. Then, a malicious grin crosses her lips- which are usually colored with sexy violet lipstick- and she replies "_Now_ I know why you chose me!!!!"


	2. Young love

**In a New Orleans coffee shop downtown, an anxious man scans the newspaper for job opportunities. His name is Arthur Pihlijamaki. He moved to America from his hometown in**

** Finland when he was an early teenager. Right now, of course, he was in his late twenties. He was quite the nerdy type; he wore glasses over his hazel eyes, had a tall skinny **

**body with a very handsome tan and long shaggy hair which he never liked to brush. "Coffee, sir?" the waitress asks him and he frowns at her. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I just can't **

**afford any right now" he tell her sadly and she tries to hide her perturbed expression as she walks away from his table. Arthur had a very good job working as a tour guide at the**

** Louisiana Wildlife Museum. Unfortunately, he was recently laid off because the exhibits were getting less and less popularity. They soon had to shut down and make room for a **

**new, better museum to be built. But, it was a planetarium, he didn't take Astronomy in college, just Ecology. So he couldn't get another job at this new building. While he was **

**desperately searching through the newspaper, he couldn't help but notice a young blond woman with bright blue eyes kept half walking past his table, and then going back into her**

** seat. This continued over and over as if she was trying to do something but was too scared to follow through. Being the kind-hearted man he is, Arthur turns around to the table **

**behind him where she began to sit down again. "Excuse me, do you need help with something?" he asks her and she blushes like mad. Arthur smiles sympathetically and goes to **

**sit at her table and figure out what's wrong. "Arthur Abraham Pihlijamaki! But, you can call me Arth" he introduces himself while reaching out his bony hand and she happily **

**shakes it. "Margaret Emilia Destin! But, you can call me Mags" she greets him back and giggles at his dorky smile. Arthur takes a seat in the chair next to her and waits for her to**

** explain why she was acting so ancy a few minutes ago. "It's him!" she bashfully confides to the nerdy man. Arthur curiously turns around to see where she was pointing. There **

**was another man with glasses at the far end of the café. He had long dark-blue hair and was wearing a collar shirt which was neatly tucked into his trousers. It looked like he was**

** grading papers, he was deeply involved in whatever it was- never looking up until the occasions where the waitress asked him how he was doing. Arthur turns back to the **

**woman who was nearly melting in her chair, and smiles. "Oh, I know him! He's a school teacher! He used to take his students on field trips to the wildlife museum all the time and**

** request me as their guide!!!" Arthur explains and then slaps his tan forehead over and over in frustration. "I should know his name! Why can't I remember his name?!!! Adam **

**Lermont or something like that… no, that's not it!!!" the frustrated man grunts to himself until Maggie interrupts him. "Aidan Nathaniel Leerman" she corrects him dreamily. "But**

** the people here call him Mr. Leerman. He comes here every day at exactly three thirty two in the afternoon and grades papers. He always gets the low fat chocolate latte because**

** he doesn't want to get overweight and chooses that exact table by the window to sit, **_**every time**_**" she explains further and Arthur gives her a strange look, but decides not to tell **

**her how much she sounded like a stalker in that moment. Instead, he gives her that friendly, dorky smile again and says "He's very sweet! He'd love to go out with you!!! I'm sure**

** all you have to do is go over there and ask!!!!" the Finnish man tells her and Maggie's eyes widen in terror as she ducks underneath the table in fear. "It's not that easy!!!" she **

**squeals nervously from underneath the table and Arthur chuckles in amusement at her cute reaction. "Aw, young love!" he sighs to himself and rests his chin in his hand to look **

**out the window. Suddenly, his heart starts thumping violently and gets a strange tingling feeling as he spots a lightly tan woman striding on the pavement with bright red lipstick,**

** long brunette hair, dark blue eyes and perfect model-like legs striding down the sidewalk. She was wearing a miniskirt, high heels, and a professional blouse while nonchalantly **

**chatting business talk into her cell phone. Arthur Pihlijamaki closes his thighs tightly and whispers "I think I'm in love" in his dazed, goofy voice.**


	3. An unexpected collision

Meanwhile, driving an expensive Lexus vehicle on the busy streets right outside the coffee shop was a man, well-known throughout the state, named Joshua Carterson. He was very rich

and somewhat stuck up. You either loved him or hated him. There was no in the middle. He was extremely handsome and muscular, had a perfect tan, long dark brown hair and deep mocha

eyes. Striding at the side of his car on the sidewalk was Arthur's new love interest- Lisa Destin. Still gabbing into the cell phone about work, she stops at the street intersection and presses

the button to allow pedestrians to pass through the crosswalk safely. Joshua sees the flashing green pedestrian signal and gently slides his Lexus to a halt at the side of the road and rolls

down the window. "Hey you!" the self-absorbed, confident man yells to a random person on the sidewalk. The confused citizen hurriedly runs up to Joshua's car as the rich man impatiently

snaps his fingers. "I'll give you a hundred bucks if you please go hurry up and grab me a coffee before this lady crosses to the other side of the street" he explains, pointing to Lisa stepping

onto the street. The overjoyed stranger nods wildly and starts to zoom into the coffee shop. Joshua leans his head out the window gratefully. "You're a lifesaver! Thanks a million!" he yells

to his rushing helper and then suddenly gasps in horror. While he was shouting thankfully to the citizen, his muscular arm suddenly had a spasm beyond his control and yanked the steering

to swerve his car towards the crosswalk while his foot flew off the brake simultaneously. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!!!!!!!!" Joshua screams, utterly confused and terrified for his life as

his brand new Lexus collides with shocked Lisa Destin.


	4. Rushing to the rescue

Inside the coffee shop, everyone gasps in horror at the bloody scene going on beyond the large decorative windows. "OH NO! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!!!!" Maggie screeches. "I know!!!

She's beautiful!!!!!!!" Arthur replies, all his fantasies from the last few seconds slowly being crushed. Maggie's eyes widen even more at him and then she screams** "_SHE'S MY _**

**_SISTER_**!!!!!!!!!!" so loud that everyone in the coffee shop heard it. The nerdy man's face burns into a deep red from embarrassment and he collapses onto the floor in surprise. Suddenly,

Aidan Leerman runs up to the two "She's your sister?! That's so tragic!!! It would be my pleasure to drive you over to the hospital so you can see if she's okay!" he offers and when Maggie

turns around and sees who was talking to her, she passes out into the handsome teacher's arms. "Wait up, you guys! I'm coming with you!!!!" Arthur yells and struggles his stumbling body

to his feet and rushes after them to exit the coffee shop. As the nerdy man zooms out of the entrance doors, he notices a surprised looking citizen, half holding up a container of Joshua's

favorite flavor of coffee, but at the same time, staring with an awkward expression at the rich man who was in the middle of the street, desperately dialing 9-1-1 into his cell phone. Arthur

slowly walks up to the frozen stranger and takes the coffee out of his hand. "Thanks! I've been needing this!!!" the unemployed foreigner says with a smile to the poor citizen before he

runs off again to jump in the car with Aidan and Maggie.


	5. Suddenly I see!

"HA HA!!!!! WHOOT!!!!!!!" Lina cheers as she dances on the sidewalk after just quitting her job. Then she looks up to the sky with a huge grin on her face. "Whoever you are that is going

to die tonight, I hope you have a wonderful last day on earth because you sure made me the happiest person in the world!!!!!" she yells into the sky like a maniac without caring that

people around her were staring. She hops into her convertible- which was the first thing she bought after she got the money- and puts on a pair of her favorite sunglasses. Lina fires the

ignition and turns on the radio for some background music to her new glamorous life. "Suddenly I see!" by KT Tunstall starts blaring into the car. Lina rolls her eyes and sings along

sarcastically "Suddenly I see why the hell I hate this song so much!!!" (Catchy new lyrics, huh?) She presses a long black fingernail on the seek button in aggravation and hears the

familiar piano melody to "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton. "I'd walk a thousand miles just to get away from this lame song!!!" She tries one last time to become friends with the

radio but the next time she presses seek, the ever popular song "How to Save a Life" by the Fray comes on and she almost loses her mind. "OBVIOUSLY I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!!" she

screams and turns the radio off. From the adventure she's had today, anyone can plainly see she doesn't care. Lina digs in her purse, pulls out her MP3 player and plugs it into the Audio

Input in the expensive new car. She smiles as she begins to jam to the song "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence, her favorite band. "Now that's more like it!" she scolds the radio, and

finally starts the car to back out of the parking lot she used to park every morning for work, but not anymore. Having the time of her life, she blasts the music louder in the convertible and

snaps her gum while the wind breezes through her hair and her sunglasses keep the bright sun out of her eyes. She finally parks at an expensive shoe store after purposely driving

around three more times just because she loved the car so much. After getting out the convertible, she takes her shoes off and drops them in the trash can next to the door to the shoe

store because she knows she'll never need them again after this shopping trip. Lina immediately feels like a little kid in a candy store again upon entering the high style gallery of shoes.

Her bare feet scamper excitedly over to a sexy pair of black leather stiletto boots. "Find my size to these, ASAP!!!" she snaps at the pretty Asian lady in front of the cash register. The

cashier directs Lina to one of the comfortable chairs where Lina can seat herself and stretch her feet out in front of the woman, just like a pedicure but with a heavy metal device that

your foot goes onto. "Hmm… Mmm hmm… Mmm" the Asian woman mumbles to herself as she measures Lina's delicate foot carefully. "I think I know what would fit you" she tells

pampered Lina and goes into the back room to select the right pair. She comes back shortly and starts to fit the size she picked out onto Lina's feet. The new millionaire smiles and gazes

off to the side wall of the store where there was a television showing the news. Lina decides to watch it while the cashier continues to gently fit her in the new boots. "Earlier today,

there was a bizarre accident right in front of the New Orleans coffee shop downtown. The well-known Joshua Carterson allegedly claims he didn't mean any harm to the poor woman

named Lisa Destin whom he almost ran over while she was innocently crossing the street" Lina's jaw drops. "What is it? Too tight?!" the Asian woman asks in a Japanese accent but by

the time she looked up for Lina's answer, she was smacked in the face by the boot Lina just ripped off and threw at her before zooming out of the store. "NO WAY NO WAY NO

WAAAAAY!!!!!" Lina screeches as she launches herself into her convertible and races it recklessly to the hospital.


	6. An inevitable new twist

Nervous Joshua wrings his hands in the hospital room as he stares at Lisa's scarred face on the hospital bed and the doctor scribbles down notes while watching the heartbeat meter.

"She's got until sundown to live" the doctor finally gives his report to impatient Joshua who was forced to bear the agony of waiting twenty minutes until they would tell him how his victim

is doing. "WHAAAAAT?!!!!" Joshua screams in panic. "Her heart is slowly failing. There is nothing we can do" the doctor explains calmly and shrugs at Joshua's horrified, gaping

expression. The rich man grits his teeth in disbelief. "There's always a way!!!! Get specialists in here to perform heart surgery! Heck, you can even replace her heart!!! I know you can do

it!!! I read the Science magazines!!!!" the stubborn man protests desperately. The doctor shakes his head. "Well, I guess we could… But it would cost a ridiculous amount of money to

get a specialist over here in less than five hours and perform full, professional heart surgery…" the doctor starts to explain but Joshua interrupts him with a rude laugh. "DO YOU KNOW

WHO I AM?!!!! I AM JOSHUA WILLIAM CARTERSON!!!! I'm MADE of money!!! I dare you to name your price!!!" the confident man challenges the medical professional as he pulls out his

wallet. "One Million Dollars" the doctor seethes and the wallet almost drops out of Joshua's hands. The doctor glares at him as Joshua sadly sulks back to his seat by the window.

Suddenly, three more adults burst into the door. A usually quiet school teacher, a cute blond woman, and a friendly nerd who was determined to get another job and prove himself in life.

"How is she?!" concerned Maggie asks as she goes to stroke her older sister's hair and move it out of her injured face. Arthur gulps in hard from viewing Lisa's awful condition and

clutches onto her hand, desperate not to let her go. Shy Aidan just stands by the doctor, watching his distressed friends with a sinking heart. "Who could possibly think of doing this?!"

Arthur exclaims in disgust and the three simultaneously turn to glare at poor Joshua, who had his face buried in his hands in despair as he sat in the lonely chair at the corner of the

hospital room. "OH, COME ON!!!!! IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!!!!" the rich man yells in aggravation that no one would listen to him. "It's got to be SOMEBODY'S fault!!!!" Arthur furiously yells

back, still clutching onto Lisa's hand. Suddenly, Lina bursts into the hospital room. "I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST KILLED MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!" she screams in utter frustration and disbelief. The

others stare at her curiously for a second and then go back to quarreling with each other. "It's totally your fault, nerd!" stubborn Joshua accuses Arthur as he folds his muscular arms

angrily. "No, it wasn't!!!! How could it be my fault when…" the Finnish man starts to argue back but suddenly gets interrupted. "Arthur?" The angry nerd turns away from Joshua to see his

twin sister walking into the chaos of the hospital room. She had extremely long but neat, sandy hair and the same hazel eyes as him, but without the glasses. She wore a sweater and

jeans and had a fairly light tan compared to her brother. "I've been looking all over the city for you!!! I landed you that job interview you wanted. They're waiting for you right now, come

on!!!" she tries to grab his arm but he yanks away. "I'm not leaving without her! I found true love today!!!" he explains dreamily, gazing at my closed eyelids, yearning for them to open.

His sister, Paulina, groans and rolls her eyes. "You're ridiculous!!!" she insults him in aggravation. All the while, Lina kept her eyes fixed on her other-self lying helplessly on the hospital

bed. "If she's going to die tonight… It's inevitable that…" she starts to whisper to herself but everyone in the hospital room suddenly hears an annoying man's voice out in the hallway,

growing louder as he and another nurse come closer to the room. "No, I want to see the DYING people! The real deal… Ooh, sexy lady!!!!" Damian Suckarri excitedly skips into the room to

drool at Lina. Damian right now works as a tattoo artist but he was formerly an emo as a teenager, so of course he was into creepy stuff like dying. "Hey hot stuff, interested in a tattoo

right here?" grinning Damian asks the dazed woman as he reaches out his pale bony hand to touch her breast but suddenly leaps away when she bends over and starts puking blood

violently. "Ew!!!" the surprised tattoo artist blurts out and feels embarrassed for trying to hit on her. A squad of nurses quickly arrives at the hospital room and carries Lina away in a

gurney, thanks to the helpful call the doctor made to the lobby of the hospital. "You all stay here. I'm going to get a janitor to clean up this mess" the doctor now tells the rest of them in

the room as he points to the puddles of blood on the floor before striding off into the hallway. Aidan decides to end the silence and speak up "While we're here, I just wanted to ask…

Does anyone besides me have a strange feeling that we've all met before?" he asks and the others look around at each other and shrug. Damian slowly leaves them and goes into the

hallway to try to figure out which room they took Lina too. He still couldn't resist her!


	7. DO YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT LIFE AT ALL!

Lina glares at the doctor as he tells her what she knew she was going to hear but didn't want to hear it anyway. "You've got until sundown to live" he tells the aggravated woman and

then nonchalantly bustles out the room. Lina slams the back of her head onto the pillow in frustration and grits her teeth at the ceiling until she suddenly gets interrupted by a long, exaggerated

whistle. She quickly sits up in the bed to see who it is and finds a pale, skinny man with long black hair standing at the doorway. Damian shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans

and smiles sympathetically at Lina. "Pretty intense stuff" he comments and she narrows her eyes even more. Even though she didn't invite him in, the tattoo artist calmly strolls over to

her and sits at the side of her bed. "Wanna make out before you die and all?" he asks and Lina rolls her eyes at his stupidity. "DO YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT LIFE AT ALL?!!!!" she snaps at

him and he shrugs. "I don't know… did you care before all this happened? Sometimes it seems like your own life has to be in danger until you really understand the importance of it all. I

dunno, I guess that's just what I think" he explains nonchalantly and- even though he wasn't specifically pertaining to earlier this morning- Lina's eyes widen as she realizes what a

horrifying decision she made with that weird button and the glowing man. She gapes in utter astonishment at the wall while Damian babbles on about his inner desires. "Yeah… I used to

be emo as a teenager so I was always curious about death, you know? It always seemed to intrigue me…" he explains and then stops short when he realizes he's with a sexy woman,

not a therapist. "ARE YOU GONNA MAKE OUT WITH ME OR NOT?!!" he yells impatiently and she slowly turns to him and gives him a meaningful look. "Sure, you're cute. But I want to ask

you something first" she says and scoots closer to him excitedly as she holds out her finger. "Now I want you to think about this carefully, it's the most important decision you'll ever make

in your lifetime!" she tells him with a grin, as if she knew something he didn't. "You have a choice to either make out with me- which comes with the sacrifice of one random human life on

this earth… or you can choose not to kiss me and live the rest of your life with a conscious free of guilt!" she explains and he gets a wild grin on his face. "That's a stupid question!!!! OF

COURSE I'LL MAKE OUT WITH YOU, BABE!!!!!" he exclaims and lurches to make lip contact but she laughs playfully and tries to restrain him from doing so. "I told you to think about it,

Dude!!!!!" she reminds him but he ignores her and continues to struggle his mouth onto hers as she continues to violently resist his attempts. The happy couple forgets all about their

problems and continues fighting together on the bed as Lina attempts to teach the stubborn man a lesson.


	8. The lesson learned

"Dude! Du-u-ude!!! DUUUUUDE!!!!!!!" Lina screams, half giggling, half furiously screaming as she tosses and turns on the bed. She suddenly wakes up, and clutches her pillow close to

her chest as she stares straight into the mirror in front of the bed in her bedroom. She was a teenager again, thank God. She wasn't destined to die. It was all a dream. "Dang!" she

gasps as her eyes widen towards the alarm clock which read 11:45 A.M. She hurriedly throws a T-shirt and jeans on before rushing down the stairs of the house where she lived with her

friends. Zooming into the kitchen, she finds that her friends were their usual teenage selves also. "You sure are late getting up this morning!" her twin sister Lisa comments from where

she was frying eggs at the stove. Lina examines what Lisa was wearing and frowns. "You know, you shouldn't dress so much like a hooker!" the goth girl scolds her straight-A making

sister and tugs down on Lisa's miniskirt, leaving her twin utterly confused. "Huh?" Lisa whispers to herself as she watches Lina walk away from her and into the rest of the chaos going

on in the kitchen. Soon, a grinning emo boy confronts her at the kitchen table. Damian was confidently clutching onto poor Arthur's briefs and yanking them out of the weak and helpless

dork's pants. "Lina! Would you like to watch me give this nerd the ultimate wedgie?!!!" Damian asks her excitedly while Arthur whimpers at the sound of it. "ARTHUR!!!!" Lina's little sister

Maggie comes racing up to them, but being a little girl, she couldn't control or prevent the teenager's actions. It was up to Lina if Arthur got to suffer through intense pain or not. "If you

say yes, I'll make out with you!!!" Damian happily adds. "Ew! Why would she want to make out with a twerp like you?!!!" someone interrupts them and the dark couple turns around to

see their rich and stuck-up neighbor Josh joining in the conversation. "I bet she'd rather some amount of money at the other end of the bargain!" he continues and Lina shakes her head.

"I've realized money isn't all that important" she says and confused Josh cocks his eyebrow. "Since when?!" he asks and she shakes her head again. Lina turns to hesitating Damian and

gives him a weak smile. "You can keep your million bucks" she tells him confidently and abruptly walks away from the three confused teenage boys. That is the story of how Lina Destin

learned "How to Save a Life."

Note: Okay, I know it took forever to upload this chapter, but I didn't want the story to end with the person dying once they learned their lesson. I believe in second chances, so this is how I think it should really end. Hopefully everyone will get to learn an important lesson in a dream instead of having to learn it the hard way in real life! Oh well, probably not. Lol! Thanks for reading, this is the OFFICIAL END!!!!!


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